Summer Game Fest 2023: ‘Not-E3’ schedule, announcements, and what you need to know

Summer Game Fest 2023 has begun and Geoff Keighley’s digital festival of gaming kicked off strong, showcasing a number of exciting gaming announcements, with more to come over the coming week.

If last month’s PlayStation Showcase increased your hype levels for the weeks ahead, Summer Game Fest will send you into overdrive with news, reveals, and announcements on everything from the biggest triple-A releases to upcoming indie games.

With E3 2023 canceled, Summer Game Fest stands as the biggest time of the year for gaming fans and sets out the roadmap for the months and years ahead. Read on for everything you need to know about Summer Game Fest 2023, including the full conference schedule and what we expect to see.

Summer Game Fest 2023: The biggest announcements so far

Summer Game Fest has been packed full of huge announcements so far. At Summer Game Fest Live, a release date for Spider-Man 2 was finally announced, Mortal Kombat 1‘s Kameo System was shown in a gameplay reveal, and the first trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth dropped.

Devolver Digital’s showcase included shadow-dropping a demo for SLUDGE LIFE 2, along with a demo for Wizard with a Gun, both of which are now available on Steam. We also saw Baby Steps, a literal walking simulator.

For more of the biggest announcements from Summer Game Fest 2023, check out our Summer Game Fest live blog and everything shown at Devolver Digital’s showcase.

Summer Game Fest 2023 schedule: all gaming conferences

Summer Game Fest 2023 looks to be jam-packed full of action, with a number of developers and publishers hosting their own showcases during the festival.

Here are all the game conferences that have been confirmed for Summer Game Fest so far, along with their dates and times, as well as the details for gaming conferences taking place during this time that don’t officially fall under the Summer Game Fest umbrella.

What is Summer Game Fest 2023?

Debuting in 2020, and set up by The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, Summer Game Fest is a season of digital events, demos, announcements, and news. Publishers and developers tend to keep some of their biggest announcements for Summer Game Fest, making it one of the most significant ‘events’ in the gaming calendar—and one that gamers shouldn’t miss.

Previous announcements have included the reveal of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, the addition of Junker Queen to Overwatch, and Hideo Kojima announcing his next project, an Xbox game that’ll use cloud technology. 

But Summer Game Fest isn’t exactly an event, trade show, or convention, like E3. Instead, it’s marketed as a “celebration” of the gaming industry or a “cross-industry festival”, with individual developer and publisher showcases falling under its wide umbrella. However, each year the season of gaming is kicked off with a live showcase, presented by Keighley. This year is no different, with the Summer Game Fest Live showcase kicking off proceedings later today.

Related link: How to watch Summer Game Fest Live 2023

When is Summer Game Fest 2023?

Summer Game Fest 2023 will take place in the coming days. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like the main events take place between June 8 and June 13, with a Guerrilla Collective showcase having taken place on June 7.

Summer Game Fest 2023 certainly appears to be more condensed than in previous years. Summer Game Fest 2020, the debut of the festival, ran from May until August which—frankly—was way too long. The following year, Keighley condensed his digital season of gaming so it ran from June until July.

Thankfully last year, the ‘core events’ of Summer Game Fest 2022 took place between June 9 and June 12, which was much more digestible. This year seems to be structured similarly, meaning we can look forward to roughly a week jam-packed with gaming goodness.

Summer Game Fest 2023 attendees

In total, over 40 partners have been announced for Summer Game Fest 2023, which gives fans plenty to be excited about. 

Big names such as Sony, Xbox, Activision, Disney, and Square Enix will take part in the digital gaming festival, along with several indie developers. You can check out the full list of confirmed attendees below:

• Activision
• Amazon Games
• Annapurna Interactive
• Bandai Namco
• Behaviour Interactive
• Capcom
• CD Projekt Red
• Devolver Digital
• Digital Extremes
• Disney
• EA Games
• Epic Games
• Focus Entertainment
• Gearbox Publishing
• Grinding Gear Games
• HoYoVerse
• Kabam
• Larian Games
• Level Infinite
• Magic The Gathering
• Neowix
• Netflix Games
• Nexon
• Niantic
• North Beach
• Paradox Interactive
• Pearl Abyss
• Phoenix Labs
• Plaion
• PlayStation
• Pocket Pair
• Razer
• Samsung Gaming Hub
• Second Dinner
• Sega
• Smilegate Entertainment
• Square Enix
• Steam
• Techland
• Tribeca Festival
• Ubisoft
• Warner Bros. Interactive
• Xbox

What to expect at Summer Game Fest 2023

Summer Game Fest live gave gamers plenty to be excited about but there is much more to come over the week ahead and we are still expecting some heavy hitters.

While we saw the first trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, we could still see something Final Fantasy 16 related from Square Enix, while EA Sports may continue to build hype for EA Sports FC, its first title without the FIFA name.

Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is expected to be the main focus of Ubisoft’s presentation, while Xbox is expected to shine the spotlight on Starfield, which will be given an additional focus at the Direct event that follows the Xbox show. We’re also hopeful for some Fable 4 news.

Plenty of indie games will be showcased across multiple days too, which could provide the next big sleeper hit, while the Future Games Show is bringing over 40 new trailers for games coming soon. Personally, I’m hoping for further details on Skydance New Media’s Captain America/Black Panther game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and news of a new LEGO title, so I will be eagerly watching with a big bag of popcorn.

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